Spyfall
by ian.cotterill.56
Summary: When a mission in the Swiss Alps goes horribly wrong, Alex, Sam and Clover are left badly injured and they find themselves stuck on sick leave. Unfortunately, the timing could not be worse, as a mass breakout soon occurs at the WOOHP containment facility and a large number of villains manage to escape. Will Britney and the Spies' mums be able to handle this crisis on their own?
1. A Disastrous Beginning

**The author of this story would like to thank fellow 'Totally Spies' ****writer jettmanas, who was kind enough to create some new cover-art for this adventure.**

* * *

High up in the cold, snow-covered peaks of the breath-taking Swiss Alps was a fortress. It was a well-built concrete structure, designed to act like some kind of bunker in the event of a global catastrophe, and was cleverly camouflaged in white paint in order to blend in with its snowy surroundings, making it look like a solid block of ice. If there had been any mountain climbers in the area at that moment, they would have been puzzled by the rectangular hatchway that began to slide open in the top of the structure. Through the hatchway, the nozzle of a large, cannon-like device emerged and took careful aim at the sun.

Inside the command centre of the fortified building, the notorious Dr Gelee was at the control panel of his new upgraded freeze ray, busying lining up the weapon so that the deadly ice beam would hit the sun dead on target.

"Excellent, everything is prepared," he said gleefully to himself. "Once my freeze ray cools down the sun, the entire Earth will be frozen solid in the process. Then when the entire human population is disposed of, I will reheat the sun and rebuild the Earth into my personal utopia!"

But as Gelee poised his eager finger over the red firing button, the main door suddenly burst open and three all-too familiar figures strode into the command room.

"Not so fast, Gelee!" said Clover defiantly.

"Yeah, your Earth-freezing days are over!" added Alex.

Shocked by this sudden intrusion, Gelee immediately leapt out of his chair. "What!? How did you girls find my lair so quickly?"

"WOOHP has been on the lookout for you ever since you broke out of jail last week," explained Sam with a smirk. "So when we discovered that pieces of expensive scientific equipment were being stolen in this particular area, it wasn't hard to put two and two together."

"Yeah, couldn't you come up with a more original scheme, Gelee?" asked Clover sarcastically. "I mean, the whole 'turning the Earth into a giant igloo' thing is like so cliché these days."

"We've already taken care of your henchmen downstairs," grinned Alex, "so why don't you do yourself a favour and surrender now?"

"Never!" screamed Gelee as he quickly moved in order to press the firing control. Reacting at once, Alex leapt forward and collided into him, knocking the scientific mastermind away from the firing button and into a significantly different set of buttons. Almost immediately, sparks of electricity began to dance about Gelee's machine and flames started to burst out on the control panel.

"You interfering brat, look what you've made me do!" exclaimed Gelee in a state of panic. "The whole system is overloading! In a few minutes this whole bunker will be reduced to a pile of ash!"

He turned to make his getaway, only to receive a resounding punch to the face by Clover, knocking him out cold.

"Err guys, maybe we should think about getting out of here," said Sam tensely as the flames spread towards the freeze ray and the whole building began to shake.

"I second that suggestion!" agreed Clover as she finished tying up Gelee and hoisted him over her shoulder. "Oof, this guy sure is heavy!"

With Clover carrying the now-subdued mastermind, the girls quickly dashed out of the room and down the stairs to the main exit. At the bottom, they could see that the henchmen they had just taken down were groggily waking up and frantically making for the lair exit too. Within seconds, the main doors burst open and a flood of people swarmed out, desperately trying to get as far from the quaking bunker as they could. The spies themselves had just managed to get outside and take cover behind some rocks, when the entire lair exploded with a colossal bang!

"Phew! That could have been nasty," breathed Sam as the debris finished falling down about the place.

Sam must have spoken too soon, for at that moment a loud rumbling noise filled the air.

"Alex, please tell us that noise is just your stomach," said Clover nervously.

Alex shook her head vigorously. "Uh-uh! I had some lunch just before we busted into the lair!"

With a fearful expression on their faces, the girls looked back up the mountain where they could see a cascade of snow tumbling down towards them!

"Avalanche!" shrieked the spies in unison.

"Quick, girls! Activate your AWFUL boots!" yelled Sam.

Hurriedly, the girls activated their respective 'All Weather Fleece Ultra Light' boots and a snowboard formed under the feet of each spy. With great speed, they began racing down the mountain, trying to get as much distance away from the avalanche as possible.

"Why does it have to be another avalanche? I have way enough nightmares about those as it is!" complained Alex as they zoomed down with the fast-moving pile of snow close on their tails.

"Don't worry, you guys!" called out Sam reassuringly. "If we can just overtake the snow and reach the bottom of the mountain, we should be okay."

"Easy for you to say, you're not having to carry this nutcase while you're still snowboarding," retorted Clover as she struggled to keep her balance while keeping the still unconscious Doctor Gelee over her shoulder.

"Hey, I think I can see the woods!" shouted out Alex. Sure enough, they could see a line of trees just a few yards ahead of them.

"Watch your step, girls! This is going to be tricky!" said Sam as they swiftly swerved their boards to dodge each tree that blocked their path. It took all of the spies' skill and agility, but they just about managed to avoid the obstacles of the dark forest.

Then, just as the girls thought they were in the clear, disaster struck. Just ahead of them was a large fallen log, buried in so much snow that the spies could not immediately see it. As they reached it, their boards suddenly snagged on the timber block and with a cry of surprise, they were all sent flying into the air. As they were about to hit the ground, the avalanche finally caught up with them and the girls, along with Gelee, found themselves practically bouncing on top of the sliding snow, crashing and banging into various rocks and trees on the way.

"Oof!" cried Alex.

"Yeow!" screamed Sam.

"Argh!" shrieked Clover.

Finally, the snow slowed down and the spies, together with their prisoner, were sent sprawling across the ground before they finally came to an agonising halt.

"Ohhh, I don't feel so good," groaned Alex dazedly as every part of her body seemed to cry out in pain.

"Aah, I think I've broken something," added Sam with an agonising moan.

"Me too," joined in Clover as she rubbed her pounding head, feeling as though she had just gone through World War Three. She tried to move her feet, but immediately cried out in agony and collapsed back onto the ground.

Alex rubbed her head. She could feel a whopping big bruise on her forehead and something wet and sticky was running down it.

"Ow! Girls, I think I'm gonna… I'm gonna…" Before Alex could complete the sentence, her world suddenly went spinning and she passed out.

"Oh no, Alex, wake up!" cried out Clover, ignoring her own aching head. She struggled to crawl over to her friend, but the excruciating pain in her legs caused her to collapse with an awful groan.

Sam tried to reach for her compowder with her left arm, but immediately stopped and grimaced as a fiery stinging sensation ran through it. She tried again with her right arm, which throbbed terribly, but was in better shape than her left one. Hurriedly, she pulled out the compowder and activated the inbuilt distress beacon.

"Please hurry, Jerry," said Sam almost in a whisper. "We are so in need of rescuing!"


	2. Busted Up Much?

**Two Days Later…**

There was a loud rumble as the sleek WOOHP Jet finally touched down in the main aircraft hanger at WOOHP headquarters. Once the vehicle was safely powered down, the main hatch swung open and Britney dashed down the steps of the gangplank with a considerable look of worry on her face. She was greeted at the bottom of the steps by Jerry, who had an equally sombre expression on his face.

"Britney, thank goodness you're finally here," said the head of WOOHP sincerely.

"I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner, Jerry," said Britney apologetically, "but we had some trouble with Boogie Gus to sort out first at the Sydney Opera House. Has there been any change with the girls?"

"I'm afraid not much has improved since I last contacted you," answered Jerry. "However, the doctor reckons that Alex should be coming to at any moment now and Sam and Clover have been both patched up as well. They're currently resting in the infirmary as we speak."

"If only I could have gotten out of Australia sooner," sighed Britney. "I'm sure the guys would have appreciated some company right now."

Jerry coughed. "Ah yes, well now that you happen to mention it…"

* * *

The first thing that Alex became aware of as she finally became conscious was the smell of disinfectant in the air. She wrinkled her nose at the distinct odour and let out a small groan. Then she became aware of the vague sound of excited voices and slowly, tentatively, she began to open her eyes. At first she thought she was looking into a hazy mirror, but as she blinked, her vision cleared and a familiar figure came into focus.

"Mummy? Is that you?" spoke Alex in a hoarse voice.

Blinking back tears of joy, Carmen smiled in relief and gave her daughter a delicate hug. "Oh, honey, thank heavens you're awake! We had all been so worried about you."

As Alex returned the hug, another thankful voice spoke up.

"Hey Alex, welcome back to the land of the living," said Clover, happy that Alex was back with them.

Alex groggily rubbed her eyes with her left hand, trying to get her brain to kick into gear. As she did so, she could feel the cotton fabric of bandages wrapped firmly around her head, as well as the cannulas of an oxygen line tucked into her nostrils. She also could not help but notice that while she had been unconscious, she had been changed out of her spy uniform and was now wearing the kind of gown commonly worn by patients in hospitals.

"Ohh, what happened? Last thing I remember was this rush of snow and then… nothing."

"Now just you relax, Alex," said Carmen tentatively. "You took quite a nasty blow to the head and the doctor says you got yourself a concussion, though hopefully not a serious one."

"Jerry managed to reach the three of you in time and get you back to WOOHP," clarified the voice of Clover's own mum, Stella. "You had your mother and friends really worried, young lady. You've been out of it for the best part of two days!"

"Yeah, we were beginning to think you were never going to come round, Alex," added Sam's voice in relief.

As Alex gathered her senses, she became more aware of her current surroundings. She was currently tucked up in bed in what seemed to be the WOOHP infirmary, with Carmen sitting intently on a chair next to her. Sam and Clover were laid out in beds on the opposite side of the room facing Alex, also dressed in hospital gowns like hers, with their own respective mothers sitting by their sides. A substantially large collection of colourful balloons, flowers and 'Get Well Soon' cards had been placed by each of the girls' beds, giving a bit of decoration to the otherwise drab room. As Alex took all this in, she suddenly realised what a sorry state her two best friends were actually in.

"Oh my gosh, are you two guys okay?" asked Alex in concern.

Sam and Clover exchanged solemn looks with each other, both feeling very far from okay. Clover had two massive casts on her legs which were being held up in traction supports and her head was practically mummified in bandages, much like that mission they had in Egypt a few years ago. Sam, likewise, had her right leg and left arm covered in solid white casts, which were similarly suspended in the air, while a large bruise dominated her left cheek.

"Not really, Alex," answered Sam at last, "but at least we're all still breathing."

"It could certainly have been a lot worse for the three of you," agreed Gabby as she gently held her daughter's right hand. "From what we've been told, that awful Doctor Gelee of yours is still in intensive care and likely to remain so for at least a year. You girls got off quite lucky in comparison."

Alex tried to sit up, but her body still ached badly and she suddenly realised that her right arm was in a sling. "Ow! I sure don't feel lucky. I guess I've broken something too, huh?"

"No, but the doctor says you've severely sprained your arm, your ribs are somewhat bruised and you've also twisted your ankle quite badly in the avalanche, so you'll need to stay off your feet for quite some time," said Carmen solemnly, feeling that her daughter ought to be aware of the full extent of her injuries.

"Don't worry, it's nothing a few weeks rest won't put right," assured Stella in a professional tone of voice. Being an earlobe contour surgeon, Stella also had a degree in general medicine and healthcare, which gave her a clearer understanding of the girls' various injuries and what they were going to need to get better as quickly as possible.

The door to the infirmary opened and Jerry and Britney strode into the room.

"Hey guys! Are you three feeling any better?" asked Britney, relieved to see her fellow WOOHP agents alive and awake.

A smile came to each of girls' faces at seeing their old friend again.

"Hi Britney! Yeah, we're still a bit sore, but otherwise okay," said Sam, trying her best to make light of what happened.

"Not exactly our best mission though," grumbled Clover. "Guess we got a bit careless back there."

"Well look on the bright side," said Britney, trying to stay positive. "You did stop Gelee from trying to freeze the planet again. That's got to count for something."

Alex turned her head towards Jerry. "Thanks for rescuing us, Jerr. Can you give us any idea how long we're going to have to be cooped up like this?"

"Sorry girls, but you're all going to need a few days rest before we can let you out of the sick bay," replied Jerry, "and you'll require a few weeks on top of that for your various injuries to heal properly."

"And that I'm afraid means no more missions during that time," added Stella delicately, but firmly. She hated the fact that they were going to have to force the girls to stop being spies again, even if it was only temporary and for purely medicinal reasons.

"But Mum…" Clover began to protest, trying to hide just how sore and tired she was actually feeling.

"No Clover, they're right," Sam cut across dolefully. "We can't go spying in our current condition. We're just going to have to lie back and take things easy for awhile."

"Cheer up, darling," Gabby said consolingly to Sam. "We'll have you back on the spy saddle in no time, you'll see. In the meantime, you three just need to concentrate on getting better. Jerry's already prepared a cover story for you at Mali-U, explaining that you got injured on a hiking trip, so you won't have to worry about those nosey Deans of yours getting suspicious."

The WOOHP doctor then entered the room and coughed to get everyone's attention. "Sorry folks, but visiting hours are over. These three girls are going to need plenty of rest and they're not going to get that with this party going on."

* * *

"So you've done spy missions alongside our daughters before?" Stella asked Britney.

"Yeah, I've learnt so much from working with them," answered Britney with a friendly smile. "They really are the finest agents in WOOHP, not to mention the best friends a girl can hope for."

After being bustled out of the infirmary by the doctor so that the girls could get some much needed rest, Jerry and the other spies began to make their way over to Jerry's office. As they walked down towards the main lift, Britney properly introduced herself to the girls' mothers and they all began exchanging various stories about their times as WOOHP agents and the various missions that they had shared with the girls.

"Yes, Samantha, Clover and Alex really have made a name for themselves here," agreed Gabby, glancing at Stella and Carmen. "I know that the three of us weren't that understanding or supportive at first, but we are really proud of what our daughters do for the world."

Carmen and Stella nodded in agreement, before Carmen let out a rather loud yawn.

"Oh dear," exhaled Carmen. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel absolutely knackered."

Gabby and Stella felt fairly tired as well, which was hardly surprising. As soon as they had heard what had happened to their daughters, the mothers had rushed straight back to WOOHP and had been sitting at the girls' bedside ever since, pretty much refusing to leave until Alex had come out of her stupor. They had all been so sick with worry that they had not gotten even an iota of sleep in all that time. Even though the mums had long since come to terms with the girls' careers as spies, they still could not help but be concerned occasionally for their daughters' safety. Of course, they knew the girls would in turn tend to worry for their mothers' own well-being, after Jerry had _accidentally_ given away the fact that Gabby, Carmen and Stella had signed up to officially join WOOHP as well.

"Well in that case, I suggest you ladies get some sleep too," said Jerry. "We've already got the guest quarters ready for you and it won't do for you to feel in even worse shape than your daughters."

"I'm not particularly sleepy at the moment, Jerry," said Britney brightly. "If it's okay with you, I'm going to go for a bit of training in the dojo."

"Of course," said Jerry, "though don't exert yourself too much, Britney. With the girls on bed rest, I have a feeling the rest of us are going to have some hard work ahead filling in for them."

Jerry had no idea just how right he was. For everyone at WOOHP, the next couple of weeks were going to be among the toughest and most dangerous of their entire lives.


	3. Sabotage!

Nightfall eventually came to Los Angeles and with it came a tranquil lull that ran through the whole of WOOHP headquarters.

It would soon prove to be the proverbial calm before the oncoming storm.

A seemingly ordinary janitor was making his routine rounds down the corridors of the building, pushing his cleaning trolley ahead of him. He seemed to be a somewhat scruffy man, with dark greasy hair covered by a long baseball cap, opaque glasses covering his eyes and a dishevelled black beard covering the lower part of his face. He seemed harmless enough as he fiddled with a wooden toothpick jammed between his teeth, but in truth, there was much more to this janitor than meets the eye.

As he reached the main security room, he parked his trolley and picked something up from the bottom shelf, before opening the door and entering the room. Inside, a couple of security guards were sitting at the monitoring station, watching the various surveillance screens that displayed all the different areas of the building. On one screen, Jerry could be seen working at his desk, while others showed views like Britney working out in the dojo and the currently frail Sam, Clover and Alex lying serenely in their beds in the infirmary. Meanwhile, a notable number of the main screens were concentrating on the various holding cells of the containment facility, in which could be seen some of the nastiest and dangerous villains on the planet.

Realising that they were not alone, the first guard turned away from the screens to face the janitor.

"Can we help you?" he politely asked the janitor, regarding the man curiously.

The janitor gave an innocent smile and shrugged. "Nah, I've just come to take out the trash."

The second security guard gave a puzzled look on her face. "But we had all the bins sorted just this afternoon," she said.

"That's not quite what I meant," chuckled the janitor maliciously, before he suddenly aimed the tube of Immobilising Stun Tan Lotion that he had in his hand and sprayed the two guards with it, instantly paralysing them! With a smirk, the 'janitor' scratched at his fake beard and briskly moved to the main control panel and spent a couple of minutes fiddling with the controls. Once he was certain that he had achieved his aim, he then picked up a chair and used it to smash up the entire control panel. He then looked up at the screens and to his satisfaction, several of the prison cell doors began to swing wide open, much to the surprise of the villains inside.

"Perfect. Now to get out of here before all hell breaks loose," said the 'janitor'. He fiddled about a bit more with his toothpick, only to wince in pain as he accidently pricked his gums!

"Gah, stupid toothpick," groused the 'janitor', as he flicked the useless stick away. The only reason he had it in the first place was to complete his disguise and he was all too happy to be rid of it now that his mission was complete. Satisfied that everything was going according to plan, he darted out of the room towards the emergency exit.

* * *

Jerry was quietly busy going through the latest reports sent to him by various WOOHP field agents, when the automatic security alarm system suddenly started blaring. Somewhat startled, he looked at the surveillance screen on his desk and was shocked to see that the doors of the containment facility were wide open and the prisoners were simply walking out of their cells! He quickly activated the speaker system on his desk and started bellowing commands.

"Emergency! Mass prison breakout occurring at the containment facility! All agents are to go down there at once and assist in containing the escapees. This is not a drill! Repeat, this is not a drill!"

* * *

A couple of floors down, Britney was just finishing practicing some new Karate moves in the dojo when she heard Jerry's message over the speakers.

"Uh-oh! This cannot be good!" she said worriedly to herself as she darted out of the room and down the corridor, glad that she still had the gadgets from her last mission with her.

* * *

A few levels up in the building, Gabby, Carmen and Stella had been calmly sleeping in the guest quarters when they were abruptly woken up by the loud alarm klaxon.

"What on earth is going on?" grumbled Stella, annoyed at having her slumber interrupted.

"That's the prison cell alarm," realised Gabs in horror. "There must be trouble downstairs!"

Carmen immediately leapt out of bed. "We better get down there fast. If someone has broken out, they could try to get at our daughters!"

* * *

Unable to get to sleep after only just coming out of her coma, Alex had been quietly reading one of her comic books, which her mother had kindly brought down for her, while Sam and Clover were peacefully sleeping in their beds. Suddenly, the alarm sirens started blaring from outside the room, just loud enough to make Alex jump in alarm and wake up the others.

"Hey, what's going on?" asked Alex anxiously.

"Yeah, what's with the major nine-one-one alert?" yawned Clover, frustrated at being woken up so abruptly by the noise of the alarm.

"It's the containment facility alarm," answered Sam with a look of dread. "There must be a prison breakout occurring!"

"Well, what are we waiting for, let's go and kick some baddy butts!" said Alex, who had momentarily forgotten what state the three of them were still in. She was just starting to get to her feet, when her world suddenly started spinning again and she had to slump back into her bed with a groan.

"You can't go out there, Alex," pointed out Sam solemnly. "You're still concussed, remember, and that ankle is pretty busted up too!"

"But we can't just lie here and do nothing," argued Clover, frustrated at being utterly unable to move her legs. "Our moms might be in totally serious trouble down below!"

Sam looked miserably at her friends, unable to bring herself to respond. The brutal truth was that because of their injuries, the three of them were effectively trapped in the infirmary and there was not a single thing they could do to help. All they could do was wait anxiously and hope that their mothers and friends were all right.


	4. The Big Breakout

Down at the bottom of WOOHP headquarters, a number of escaped criminals were darting for the doors leading to the main aircraft hanger, hoping to find a vehicle that they could escape in. They did not know how or why their prison cell doors opened up the way they did, but they were not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and hang around to find out.

"We should be able to grab ourselves a sweet ride in there that can get us out of this dump," chortled Cyril Hearsay as the hanger doors came within their sights.

"Well, just you leave the flying to me," smirked Captain Hayes. "I can jet us out of this place in no time."

But as the villains hastened forward and almost reached the hanger, the doors suddenly slid open and Britney zoomed out on a WOOHP speeder, right towards the baddies.

"You guys aren't thinking of leaving us now are you?" she asked casually, before she steered the speeder so that it started to drive right along the ceiling!

As the astonished villains looked on, Britney pulled out a bottle of the Icy Fresh Nitrogen Breath Spray from her backpack and before any of the escapees could react, she began spraying them with it. Within seconds, all the felons in the corridor were trapped in frozen hard blocks of ice.

"Brrr, that i-is like s-so c-cold!" complained Sigmund Smith as he and the others shivered in their icy prisons.

"What can I say? I can be quite the ice queen when I need to be," grinned Britney. Satisfied that these felons would not be going anywhere anytime soon, she then drove off to help sort out the other escaped prisoners in the building.

* * *

"So would someone mind explaining why we are going deeper into WOOHP instead of trying to find a way out?" asked Fremont incredulously as he and a large group of fellow prisoners ran determinedly down the corridors.

"Don't you remember what that guard said yesterday, you cretin?" snapped the Yeti Lord. "Those three girls who keep ruining our plans are stuck in the medical bay with various broken limbs and will be completely unable to defend themselves. This is our chance to get rid of them forever!"

"He's right, you know. Those interfering brats will be sitting ducks for us to pick off at our leisure!" agreed Ulrich Wernerstein, all too eager to get his revenge at last.

But as they turned a corner, they suddenly found their way to the infirmary barred by three catsuit-clad figures.

"Going somewhere?" growled the redheaded woman in the jade green outfit.

"What?! It's the spies!" exclaimed Lady Luna in astonishment.

"But how is this possible? They're supposed to be invalids at this moment are they not?" gawped the evil Ice Cream Man.

"And what is going on with the different coloured costumes? I don't recall their outfits being those shades of blue, pink and jade," commented Milton Bard, aka Stefan Toucay, as he scratched his head in confusion.

Tim Scam looked closely at the three spies before them and groaned in exasperation. "Those aren't the real spies! It's just their obnoxious mothers!"

Pushing his way to the front of the mob, the disreputable villain known simply as the Inventor shot a flirting look at Carmen. "How pleasant to see you again, my dear. I don't suppose you've had second thoughts about that dinner invitation since we last met?"

Carmen glowered at the Inventor. "For the last time, I'm already a married woman, and even if I wasn't, I would never be seen dating someone with that ridiculous hairstyle."

"Again with the hair taunting!" hollered the Inventor angrily. "Does no-one take mad scientists seriously anymore?"

"Not really, man," replied Frankie Dude candidly, before shifting his attention back to the mothers. "Anyway, clear out of the way, you old bats! We've each of us got a score to settle with those little girls of yours."

"Forget it, there's no way we're letting you hurt our daughters. You'll have to get through us first!" snapped Gabby.

"And besides, we rather gather that we have a few scores of our own to resolve with some of you," added Stella as she shot a particular scowl at Tim Scam who cringed slightly, remembering how he once got totally beaten up by the spies' mothers.

"All right then, ladies," snarled Ulrich as he cracked his knuckles loudly, "if that's the way you want to play it, it'll be our pleasure to make mincemeat out of the three of you before we do the same to your daughters!"

Filled with furious rage, the crowd of villains began to charge towards the spies' mothers. But as they did so, they were amazed to see that instead of moving into a defensive stance, the mothers were calmly put some chewing gum into their mouths and starting to blow large pink bubbles.

"What's this? You think you can bubble gum us into submission?" laughed the Yeti Lord jeeringly.

But no sooner had he said this, he saw with horror that the three middle-aged spies' respective bubbles were rapidly growing to incredible sizes, until the whole corridor was blocked off by thick pink gum. The villains screeched to a rapid halt and frantically turned to go back the way they came, but by then it was already too late. There was a loud explosion as the three bubbles suddenly burst and the villains were blasted right off their feet and sent crashing to the ground. They tried dazedly to get up, but the large gum had splattered all over them, sticking each and every one of them firmly to the floor.

"Goodness, that Ever Expanding Bubble Gum we grabbed from the gadget lab is certainly quite powerful," remarked Carmen as she and her friends examined the recaptured and gum-covered villains that were laid out before them.

"Finally, I've found a chewing gum I actually like!" said Gabby with a grin.

* * *

Amidst the chaos occurring throughout the building, Jerry and a couple of guards had marched straight over to the security room, where they found the two security operatives still paralysed and the control panel completely smashed up.

"Get someone from maintenance up here at the double," Jerry ordered one of the guards. "And while you're at it, get an antidote for these two agents here."

As the guard set off, Jerry looked around the room in puzzlement. How could an intruder get so far into WOOHP without being detected and how could he have gotten some of the Immobilising Stun Tan Lotion from the lab? Jerry was asking himself these and other tantalising questions, when his Wallet Communicator started to ring.

"Jerry here. What's the situation?" asked Jerry as he opened his wallet and an image of a WOOHP agent appeared on the screen.

"Agent Jim Band here, sir," reported the agent. "The situation is coming under control down here and most of the escapees are now back in their cells, only…"

"Only what?"

Band cleared his throat awkwardly before continuing. "Some of the prisoners managed to slip past us and get out via the service shafts. We reckon that at least twenty bad guys have been able to escape WOOHP and are now loose in the city!"

Jerry let out a loud groan. "Oh dear. This week just keeps getting better and better."


	5. Sidelined Spies

A few hours after the crisis in the WOOHP building had been quelled, a conference of war was held in Jerry's office.

"Spies, we have a serious situation on our hands," stated Jerry as he slammed his palms onto the top of his desk.

Everybody in the room exchanged grave expressions, all too aware that 'serious' was an understatement. As soon as the situation down in the containment facility had been gotten under control, Jerry received a report on all the villains that had managed to escape in all the confusion and it did not look good at all. He had set straight away on assigning various operatives to recapture each of the rampant super-criminals and now he was briefing Britney, Gabby, Carmen and Stella on the villains they were going to be pursuing. Sam, Clover and Alex were also in the room, having pretty much demanded that they be told exactly what was going on. The doctor had tried to convince them to remain in bed, but such was the girls' insistence that in the end he relented and had the three of them each given a rather comfortable motorised wheelchair for them to get around in.

"With so many villains on the loose, WOOHP is having to mobilise every available agent to recapture the escapees before they have a chance to cause any harm to the public," continued Jerry. "The latest reports state that the Granny is being pursued by the Clark siblings in Las Vegas, and agent BOB is currently on the trail of master-thief Dash Dawson in Washington."

"What about us, Jerry? Who do we have to go against?" asked Britney.

"Well Britney, you and Carmen will be tasked with tracking down Natalie Valentine, the inventor of the cologne 'Possession', which she tried to use to brainwash men into becoming her loving servants," answered Jerry. Having said this, he blushed a little as he vaguely remembered how he himself had fallen under the sway of the romance-hating villainess.

"I remember seeing that fragrance when it was in the shops," remarked Carmen. "I sure am glad that I didn't get around to buying a bottle for my husband."

Jerry turned to Gabby and Stella. "As for you two, I'll need you to locate the Ringmaster and his gang. They could well be planning to restart their plans to turn people into freaks for their sinister carnival."

"Yeah and what a nightmare that mission was," shivered Clover as she remembered how she herself ended up being turned into an elephant hybrid during that little episode.

"But Larry, if we're busy running around the country, who's going to look after the girls?" asked a worried Gabby. Before the whole mess with the breakout had started, the mothers had planned to stay at the girls' penthouse in order to look after their daughters as soon as they were released from the infirmary. The girls' respective fathers had already offered to come down and help out as well, as had Clover's older sister Daphne, but the mothers were adamant that they could handle everything themselves. But this was now going to be impossible if Gabs, Carmen and Stella were going to go villain-catching across the country.

"The name is Jerry," corrected Jerry, who was beginning to think that Gabby kept getting his name wrong on purpose. "And you don't have to worry about the girls. I've recalled G.L.A.D.I.S. from the recycling facility and assigned her to be the girls' nurse in the penthouse. She'll make sure that they stay quite safe when they are released from the sickbay."

Sam, Clover and Alex shared sullen looks with each other as they took this news in. It was bad enough that they were stuck on sick leave during a crisis, but now they were going to end up having G.L.A.D.I.S. babysitting them as well.

"But Jerr, there must be someway we can help too," protested Alex.

"Yeah, we do have years of experience between the three of us. Can't we at least act in a supervisory kind of role?" added Clover fervently.

"I'm sorry girls, but I'm afraid there isn't really much you can do in your present state," said Jerry. "This is one mission you're just going to have to sit out."

"We understand, Jerry," sighed Sam. "I just wish I knew how that saboteur got so far into WOOHP with all those gadgets and why he let all the villains loose."

"Well unfortunately, looking into that will have to wait," replied Jerry. "Until then we are going to have to scour every inch of the US and possibly the whole world in order to find those escaped super villains and make sure they are safely locked up again, before who knows what happens!"

* * *

"Ah man, this totally stinks!" grumbled Clover as the girls drove their wheelchairs towards Mali-U campus.

"I know what you mean," agreed Alex sulkily. "One of the biggest breakouts in WOOHP history takes place and we're stuck on the side-lines! How humiliating is that?"

"I was actually talking about these way clammy bandages still mummifying my head," clarified Clover irritably, "but yeah, the whole 'sick leave' thing is majorly annoying too."

After a few more days rest in the WOOHP infirmary, the girls had finally been permitted by the doctor to return to Mali-U. The three of them were really glad to be out of the drab hospital facility and be back home, where they could sit back and relax a bit easier. They had at first been really worried that G.L.A.D.I.S. would end up making their lives really difficult in the penthouse, but as it turned out, the advanced supercomputer had mellowed a lot since being demoted to recycling duties. She had become surprisingly moderate in her attitude and looked after the girls with great care, helping them get in and out of their wheelchairs and beds, as well as helping with general routines around the house, such as feeding Alex's pet pig, Oinky, and getting the washing up all done. But despite how well the girls were being looked after, Alex and Clover were still grousing over the fact that they had been effectively suspended from WOOHP and thus denied any opportunity to help deal with the mass prison breakout that had occurred.

"Look guys, will you stop complaining," responded an annoyed Sam, who was really getting tired of her two friends' continuous grumbles. "I know this is tough and everything, but the doctor did say our recovery will become a lot quicker if we stop getting worked up over everything that's happened."

"Sorry, Sammy," sighed Alex. "It's just that I'm really worried about our mommies taking on all those old baddies of ours alone."

"Same here," admitted Clover with an anxious expression. "Some of those escaped villains have got to rank among the toughest and meanest guys we've ever had to contend with. Do you really think our mums can handle it all by themselves?"

"Oh, I know it's difficult not to worry, girls," said Sam, moderating her tone a bit. "But we have worked hard to convince our moms that we can look after ourselves and it only seems fair that we have a bit more faith in them in return. Besides, Britney will be helping them out, so they should be okay in handling this fiasco."

"I guess you're right, Sam," said Alex, now feeling a little happier. "I suppose I have been getting a bit stressed out after the avalanche and everything."

Sam gave a rueful smile. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Guess I've been feeling way tense about all this too. Sorry if I sounded a bit snappish just now."

"Okay, it sounds to me like all three of us are getting way too tetchy and we could all do with something to take our minds off things," concluded Clover. "How about we go down to the nearest salon after our classes today and tidy ourselves up a bit? We could certainly do with a bit of sprucing up after all we've been through."

"That's a great idea, Clover!" smiled Sam. "I think the three of us deserve some pampering after the last few days and it would help us unwind a bit better."

Feeling a bit cheerier having talked things through, the three girls wheeled themselves into West Coast Hall, but their good mood was quickly dampened by a familiar and bothersome figure blocking their path.

"Well, look at the three of you," laughed Mandy with an expression of cruel amusement. "What a sorry state you wannabes are in! What happened, late night party get a bit too extreme for you?"

"Oh, just go away will you, Mandy," muttered Clover.

"Yeah, we are so not in the mood for this," added Alex with a look of irritation.

"Go away?" snorted Mandy. "Why would I want to do that? This is like the funniest thing I've ever seen!"

"Uh, Mandy…" started Sam.

"I mean, you losers look like something out of a badly-written horror movie, like that rubbish 'Mummy' film with Tom Cruise."

"Mandy, you may want to look behind you," continued Sam with a small grin, trying half-heartedly to point with her cast-covered arm.

Mandy ignored Sam's meek warning. "Though I guess that's all you lame-brains can amount to these days. In fact…"

There was a sudden cough behind her and Mandy scowled in displeasure. "Trent, don't interrupt me while I'm putting these brats in their place, or I'll…"

But her words died in her throat as she turned around and saw to her dismay that instead of Trent, she was in fact facing the Warden twins!

"Well, well, what do we have here?" remarked the first Dean, eager to do a bit of chastising.

"Bullying invalids are we, Mandy? How very disappointing," added the second Dean, feeling just as keen as his brother to assert their shared authority. Whilst the Warden twins may not be the girls' number one fans, it was still their job to maintain discipline around the University and they had been keeping a very close eye on Mandy ever since she turned up at their office wearing clown make-up of all things!

"But… but… I wasn't… I mean… I was just…" spluttered Mandy in a panic.

"Save the explanations for the head Dean," smirked the first Warden twin. "I'm sure Mr Franklin will be very interested to hear about your behaviour."

"And remember, we're always watching you," added the second twin as they marched a dejected Mandy to their office.

"Wow, for once I'm glad those two were around," giggled Alex as she and her chuckling friends began to make their way to fashion class. Suddenly, Alex stopped her wheelchair and rubbed her head with a small groan.

"You okay, Alex?" asked Clover in concern.

"I'm fine, thanks," said Alex weakly. "It's just these stupid dizzy spells that keep coming and going. They're like a total bother!"

"Cheer up, Al. Those spells of yours have been getting more minor and less frequent over the last couple of days, so that's a sure sign you're recovering from your concussion," reassured Sam kindly.

"Thanks, Sam," smiled Alex. The girls resumed their drive to fashion class and as they entered the classroom, they were spotted by Professor Plunkett, who goggled in admiration at the bandages woven around Clover's head.

"Now that's what I call a headscarf!" exclaimed the eccentric fashion teacher. "So sleek and slimming, I love it! You've just earned yourself an extra point in your grades, Clover!"

"Oh, wow, err, thanks Professor," Clover finally managed to say, feeling quite taken aback by this.

"Well, what'd you know? I guess our luck is improving after all," beamed Sam as the girls wheeled themselves over to the class sewing machines.

"You can say that again! I just hope Britney and our mums are having the same kind of luck that we are," remarked Alex hopefully.


	6. Smuggler's Run

Britney looked closely through the periscope of the WOOHP submarine, scanning every inch of Long Beach Harbour for any sign of the nefarious Natalie Valentine. It had taken days for Britney and Carmen to find some clue as to the evil cologne creator's whereabouts, but at last they finally managed to get a lead when one of the dockhands in the area reported briefly spotting a woman by Valentine's description lurking about the harbour during the night. It seemed likely that Valentine was planning to smuggle herself out of the country via one of the boats dotting about the place, so Britney and Carmen had hidden themselves under the waters and were now discreetly surveying the area in case Valentine reared her head again. But as the hours passed, they were both beginning to think they were chasing a wild goose.

"Oh, I'm starting to think that this Valentine lady is never going to show," sighed Britney. "I sure hope the girls are having a better time at Mali-U than we are having here."

"I'm just hoping they're not feeling mad about being made to be sit this mission out," added Carmen glumly. "I'd hate for Alex to think that I'm interfering with her life again."

Britney looked at Carmen with a curious expression on her face. "What do you mean by that? This isn't about that time you, Gabby and Stella made the girls quit WOOHP during the spy-ssassins incident is it? The girls told me that they forgave the three of you for all that ages ago."

"Well, it's not just that," said Carmen a little shamefacedly. "A few months before that mess, my husband and I had received Alex's report card, which stated that all her grades were F's. Instead of checking first to see if it was all a mistake on the part of Bev High, we went and told Alex what a disappointment she was to us and had her sent to Dorsal Academy all the way in England. It was only afterwards that we found out that there had been a big mix-up at school. Alex had actually gotten A's and B's, whilst all those F's really belonged to that awful girl, Mandy."

"Oh boy, that does sounds like a really major mistake," said Britney. "I can see why you're worried that Alex may still be feeling a bit resentful."

"Yeah, but do you know what the worst part is?" continued Carmen. "A short while after Gabs, Stella and I officially joined WOOHP, I discovered that the headmaster of Dorsal Academy was in actuality an absolute nutcase who had been secretly turning all his students into human/dolphin hybrids, including Alex! I mean, what kind of a mother sends her child to such a terrible place without getting all the facts straight first?"

"You couldn't have known," said Britney understandingly. "And that's nothing compared to some of the blunders I've made over the years. There was this one particular time when I got careless with handling the WOOHP virtual training helmet and ended up with the personalities of three super villains in my brain! I'd still have them running around in my head if it wasn't for your daughter and her friends."

"Oh my, that must have been a harrowing ordeal for you," said Carmen.

Britney nodded. "I have to admit, it was a pretty nasty experience. The point is that we all make mistakes, but we also learn from them to try and ensure they don't happen again. I know that sounds a bit cliché, but that's the way life works. Besides, Alex once told me that she really looks up to you, especially after the way you saved her and the others from the clutches of Mandy's evil band."

Carmen gave a small smile, but before she could respond, there was a sudden bleeping sound from the sub scanners.

"Hey, I think we've found our escapee!" she said excitedly.

Britney quickly checked the harbour through the periscope and sure enough, she could see a middle-aged woman with brown hair, quietly making her way towards one of the docked ships.

"Yeah, that's Natalie Valentine all right," confirmed Britney. "She's making her way towards a small ship called the 'Ceres' and it looks like the captain is there to greet her."

Carmen quickly checked through the WOOHP database on the sub's computer. "Hmm, according to this report, the 'Ceres' is alleged to have been involved in various smuggling rackets and acts of piracy, but so far the authorities haven't been able to make the charges against her captain stick due to lack of evidence."

After putting down the periscope, Britney went over to the gadget locker and extracted a pair of UPWATI's (Underwater Power Walking Apparatus That's Inconspicuous) from the hangers.

"In that case, perhaps we should get up there and gather up some evidence. Let's go!"

* * *

Within minutes, the two spies had managed to swim their way over to the 'Ceres' and were now quietly climbing up the side of the ship, taking care not to be spotted. As they noiselessly clambered onto the deck, they could hear voices coming from the captain's cabin, so they silently crept over and pressed their ears to the door.

Inside the cabin, Natalie Valentine was trying to form a bargain with Captain Spigot, a tough-looking man with a strong physique and a square-jawed face. He had messy long red hair, a thick grubby beard and a large black eye-patch covering his scarred left eye, which rather suited him considering his long piratical career.

"So, you want me to smuggle you out of the country, eh?" said Spigot as he leaned back in his cosy armchair and regarded Valentine thoughtfully. "And exactly what would be in it for me?"

"The chance to gather a new crew for your ship," replied Valentine self-confidently. "I'm aware that the police recently captured all your men in a raid a few months ago. If you get me out of here, I can give you a variation of my cologne which can instantly transform any woman of your choice into your most loyal servant."

An evil grin crept across Spigot's face as he considered this. That sounded a really good bargain to him. With such a perfume, he could form the most obedient and ruthless crew ever known on the high seas.

"Lady," he said at last, "you just got yourself a ship."

Outside, an appalled Carmen and Britney had heard everything and had recorded every word spoken on their compowders for evidence of Spigot's criminal activities.

"I think we've heard enough," said Britney. "Time to bring them in, I think."

"Right. I'll kick the door open and then you can catch them with the Net Throwing Mascara," replied Carmen.

Britney nodded in agreement and the two spies moved into position. Once they were both ready, Carmen delivered a swift karate kick to the door… only for her foot to smash right through the rotten wood!

"Oh no, I'm stuck!" exclaimed Carmen as she tried to pull her foot free from the large hole she had just made.

Inside the cabin, an alarmed Valentine and Spigot leapt to their feet at the sight of Carmen's foot sticking through the splintered gap in the door.

"By Rackham's burning beard, we have ourselves some stowaways on board!" exclaimed Spigot as he grabbed a laser pistol from his desk. He fired a shot at the door, but outside, Britney had managed to grab Carmen and pull her free of the door, getting her out of the way of the laser blast just in time. The two spies took cover behind some crates on the deck just as the door burst open and the two villains stepped out, scanning the area for their intruders.

"All right, what do we do now?" whispered Carmen urgently.

"Well, the captain is the only one armed," pointed out Britney, "so we better concentrate on taking him out first. If you can distract him, I'll sneak behind and take him down."

"Okay, well wish me luck," said Carmen before she leapt out from behind her hiding place and bounded across the deck. Spotting her, Spigot fired a few shots, but Carmen was just able to leap clear and avoid the volley of deadly laser beams.

As Spigot's back was turned, Britney was able to sneak along the deck and creep right up behind the pirate captain. Before Spigot knew what was happening, Britney delivered a karate chop to his arms, causing him to drop the pistol, and she tossed the pirate over her shoulders and sent him crashing onto the other side of the deck.

"Nice work," smiled Carmen as she moved across to join her teammate.

Britney looked around, realising that something was amiss. "Wait a second, where's Valentine got to?"

Suddenly, a large sail tumbled down from the mast and engulfed the two WOOHP agents, trapping them both!

"Well, will you look at that? It seems we've got ourselves a visit from the Blues Sisters!" laughed Valentine as she stepped away from the bottom of the mast where she had untied the ropes holding the sail in place.

Grumbling furiously to himself, Spigot got to his feet and marched over to the fallen sail, where he could see the shapes of the two spies underneath, frantically struggling to free themselves from the heavy material draped over them.

"So, we got ourselves a pair of spies, have we?" he snarled. "Do you know what the likes of me do to spies?"

"Let me guess," said Valentine wearily. "Make them walk the plank?"

"No. We blow them to smithereens!" laughed Spigot evilly.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, the two spies had been dragged to the nearest harbour warehouse, where they were both tightly gagged and tied securely to one of the wooden support beams. As Valentine finished tightening Britney and Carmen's bonds, Spigot finished placing a large crate of TNT explosives into the centre of the abandoned warehouse, before setting a timer connected to the various fuses.

"This is just perfect," he said as he completed getting things set up. "When this stuff blows in fifteen minutes, you two snooping ladies will be blasted to pieces along with this warehouse. We'll be watching the fireworks from a safe distance and while the authorities will be distracted battling with the resulting fires, I'll already be off on my way with my passenger."

Satisfied that all was ready, Spigot got the timer going, before making his way briskly out of the warehouse and back to his ship. Valentine moved to follow him, but paused briefly at the door to blow the bound and gagged spies a kiss.

"So long, ladies. It's been a real blast!" she laughed maliciously. Then she was gone.

As soon as she was satisfied the baddies were out of sight, Britney struggled furiously against the ropes to reach the Laser Nail File hidden inside her pocket. It took a tense few minutes, but at last she had managed to get hold of the gadget and within seconds, she was able to cut herself and Carmen free.

"That revolting and murderous pair!" exclaimed Carmen the moment she managed to remove her gag. "We've got to stop them getting away!"

"We will, but first we've got to defuse these explosives," said Britney, who had already dashed over to the pack of TNT. Taking great care, she examined the fuse timer and a minute later, she found the cable she needed to neutralise the explosives. A bead of sweat formed on her forehead as she slowly pulled the wire out, hoping that she had indeed got the right cable. There was a slight spark as the cable snapped out of the machine, but to Britney's relief, the numbers on the timer stopped cold, stuck at five minutes from detonation.

Britney let out a long sigh. "Phew, that could have been bad. Now let's take down those two!"

* * *

As soon as the 'Ceres' was a mile away from the harbour, Spigot weighed anchor and joined Valentine on the deck, the two of them looking eagerly out towards the warehouse. Spigot shot a quick glance at his watch.

"Five seconds to go," he leered with anticipation. "Four… Three… Two… One… ZERO!"

He looked back up, expecting to hear a deafening explosion and see a blaze of fire and smoke from the harbour. But to his immense disappointment, nothing happened at all.

"I don't understand," he said in bafflement. "There was no fault in the timer."

Valentine looked closely at the harbour and to her dismay, she saw the two spies soaring on jetpacks towards them!

"Quick, get this tub moving!" she yelled at Spigot, tugging hysterically at his arm.

But it was already too late for the two villains to do anything. Before they even had a chance to get clear, the spies were upon them. Moving swiftly, Carmen fired the Net Throwing Mascara and a second later the pair of baddies were trapped in the tight encompassing net.

"Look at that, it seems we've made the catch of the day!" grinned Carmen as she and Britney landed on the deck.

"Well, that's our escaped prisoner sorted," smiled Britney. "I wonder how the others are doing?"


	7. The Ringmaster Strikes Again

At its peak, the Museum of Circus Magic was a fun and jolly place for children and tourists to visit in Philadelphia. But when Gabby and Stella parked their WOOHP cycles at the main entrance, the exhibition was at that moment closed for the next month, awaiting renovations to be made to the structure of the building and for new exhibits to be brought in.

"What a monotonous looking abode this is. Remind me again why are we looking about this place?" said Stella as the two women made their way over to the double doors that led into the building. Like her daughter Clover, Stella had never been that keen on carnivals and circuses as she found them tremendously creepy, so she was not especially fond of having to search this particular museum.

"Well, all the clues we've found over the last few days suggest that the trail of the Ringmaster is heading towards this exhibition," replied Gabby as she got out the Hairpick Lockpick and quickly opened the padlock keeping the doors shut.

"But I thought Jerry and the girls said the man was aiming to get more DNA altering mirrors to turn people into freaks. Why would he come here instead?" asked Stella.

"He still needs props and things to rebuild his circus first," said Gabby as she pried the doors open and they quietly slipped inside. "Maybe he's hoping to steal some stuff here for his show."

* * *

Gabriella would soon discover that her hunch was absolutely right. Sure enough, in the centre of the main hall, the four-armed criminal known as the Ringmaster was with his loyal Wolf-Man underling, greedily surveying a number of display cases with many circus exhibits inside, such as balancing balls, unicycles and a man-shooting cannon.

"Perfect, there's enough here to form fresh acts for the new Carnival Diablo," said the Ringmaster with an evil grin, rubbing both his pairs of hands together with elation. "And once the greatest show on Earth is restored, we can restart my plan to transform audience members into wondrous freaks and make them unwilling participants of the show."

The Wolf-Man gave a toothy grin in agreement, being one of the few who willingly accepted being transformed into a freak, just for a chance to be in show business. Suddenly, he caught the scent of intruders approaching, a scent that seemed similar to one he had smelt before some years ago. He whirled around, just in time to see Gabby and Stella kick the hall doors open and move into a fighting position.

"Hey chief, don't look now, but we've got company!" growled the Wolf-Man as he bared his sharp fangs at the spies.

"Show's over, you two!" said Gabby steadfastly. "It's time for you to take your last bows!"

A look of hate came across the Ringmaster's complexion. "So, you've decided to face me again, have you? Well, I've been looking forward for a chance to make you spies pay for ruining my show and getting me locked up!"

"Wait a second," said the Wolf-Man as he looked closely at the spies and sniffed their scent again with a disdainful expression. "Those aren't the same spies who had us arrested. These two smell too much like old socks and look far too wrinkly!"

The two spies were absolutely enraged by this remark and they angrily glared at the Wolf-Man.

"Old socks?" echoed Stella crossly.

"Wrinkly?" exclaimed Gabby heatedly.

The annoyed Ringmaster glowered at the Wolf-Man and impatiently slammed the end of his cane down onto the floor, the noise echoing around the large chamber. "Well, whoever they are, you better get rid of them haven't you?"

With a snarl, the Wolf-Man leapt into action and charged towards the two spies. With a yelp of alarm, Gabby and Stella quickly leapt out of the way and the Wolf-Man crashed right into one of the display cases, sending various exhibited props and shards of glass flying about the place. Furiously, the Wolf-Man got back to his feet and reared again on the spies, baring his dripping fangs at them.

"Oh, that's revolting!" grimaced Stella in disgust at the sight of the Werewolf's fangs. "You really ought to brush and gloss your teeth more often, mister!"

The Wolf-Man gave a roar of rage and charged again, but this time the two ladies were ready for him. Grabbing a small hula-hoop from one of the scattered props, Stella ran forward and leapt right over the Werewolf. The moment as she was over his head in mid-air leap, Stella wedged the hoop right over the surprised Wolf-Man's body, jamming his arms to his sides! As the oversized wolf creature tried to pull himself free from the tight hoop, Gabby grabbed a heavy juggling skittle and whacked it right over the howling Wolf-Man's head, knocking him out cold.

As he saw the tide of battle turn against him, the Ringmaster panicked and tried to make a break for the exit, but Gabby grabbed the edge of the red carpet he was running on and gave it a strong yank, sending him crashing to the floor.

"Like I said," smirked Gabby as she and Stella moved across and towered over the fallen Ringmaster, "this show is over."

For a moment, the Ringmaster snarled, but then his expression cleared and a wicked grin crept across his face as he spotted something the spies had not.

"Impressive moves, ladies," he said, "but I doubt you can match the flexibility of the Elastic-Lady!"

Before the spies knew what was happening, something shot out of the shadows behind them like a snake and wrapped itself tightly around them both, pinning their arms against their sides!

"What in the world…" started Stella in bewilderment as she and Gabby strained franticly to free themselves from whatever had trapped them. As they looked up, they were astonished to see that the thing that had trapped them was not a snake at all. It was in fact a young woman in her mid-twenties with long black hair, who had somehow managed to stretch her body like a piece of elastic and wrap herself around the two WOOHP agents.

"Ha! That'll teach you to hurt my sweet hubby!" she snarled hatefully at them.

Gabby looked surprised. "Hubby? You mean you're married to that horrid wolf-creature?"

"They had their wedding in prison," explained the Ringmaster as he got to his feet and crossed over to a glass box a little further away in the room. He knelt down and read the information plaque, an evil smile crossing his lips.

"Ah, the old 'Chinese Water Torture Cell' trick. How ideal."

Getting on top of a convenient stepladder placed next to the box, he removed the glass lid of the cell and made a gesture to the Elastic-Lady. Seeing what the Ringmaster had in mind, the stretchy girl eagerly dragged the two struggling spies over and dumped them into the tank. The Ringmaster them slammed the lid shut and secured it with a padlock.

"Houdini used this classic performance act many times in his life," leered the Ringmaster as he started to turn a valve connected to a large pipe that in turn had been fixed to the bottom of the box. "But unlike him, you two won't be pulling off any miraculous escape acts for this trick!"

To Gabby and Stella's horror, water began gashing through the grill of the pipe and rapidly began to fill the confined space of the glass tank. Desperately, they tried to kick and punch at the glass to break out, but it would not yield and the water was already reaching their knees!

Satisfied that the spies would not be getting out any time soon, the Ringmaster twiddled his moustache, before helping the Elastic-Lady and the somewhat dazed Wolf-Man to grab a number of items from the display cabinets and bundle them into some swag bags.

"Time to be off now, I think. It's time to get this show on the road!" he said with another evil grin, before he and his cohorts run out through the fire exit and towards the getaway van they had parked at the back.

"Oh it's no good. This glass is quite unbreakable!" hollered Stella as she banged her fists against the walls of the box in frustration. By now the water was up to their chests and Gabby was hurriedly pulling a couple of heart-shaped underwater breathing masks out of her backpack.

"Quick, Stella, put on this 'Breathe Easy Go Anywhere Air Mask'!" instructed Gabby as she handed Stella one of the masks. The two women quickly put on their masks, just as the flowing water reached their necks. A few more seconds after that and the whole tank was filled.

"Phew that's a relief," said Stella, thankful for the breathing masks that Jerry had given them. "But the oxygen in these things won't last forever. How are we going to get out?"

"Maybe this is a good time to try out the 'Erase A Space Bangle'," said Gabby as she aimed the bracelet-shaped device around her wrist at the top of the glass lid. A beam of light shot out from the device and middle of the lid was disintegrated, leaving a perfect round man-size hole above the spies' heads. Quickly, they lifted themselves through the hole and out of the now overflowing tank.

"Good thinking, Gabs," said Stella as she removed her breathing mask. "Though why didn't you use that thing earlier?"

Gabby gave a sheepish look. "Well to be honest, I had clean forgotten about the gadget until just now. Dear me, I'm sure Sam would have thought of using the Bangle much sooner than I did."

"Well never mind," said Stella. "We're out now and that's the main thing. Now let's stop that terrible trio before they escape!"

* * *

The getaway van was making good progress driving down the city streets of Philadelphia. With the museum alarms immobilised well in advance of the heist, the Carnival gang did not have to worry about any police getting onto their tail. Nevertheless, the Wolf-Man was keeping a close eye on the rear mirrors as the Ringmaster drove the van through the narrow avenues. It was with some alarm that he saw in the mirror that the two spies they had just left to drown were now chasing them on motorcycles!

"What?! How did they get loose?" he exclaimed.

The Ringmaster and the Elastic-Lady turned their heads towards the mirror to see for themselves the reflection of the two pursuing spies. The Ringmaster gave a look of intense displeasure at seeing the two ladies still alive.

"Shake them off!" he yelled and the Wolf-Man immediately put his foot to the pedal, causing the van to pick up speed. But the WOOHP cycles were much faster and the spies were quickly catching up with the baddies!

"Leave them to me. I'll take care of those pair of old witches," leered the Elastic-Lady as she lowered the van passenger window and started to stretch herself out.

Stella and Gabby had just about caught up with the fast-moving van when they saw the Elastic-Lady stretching out towards them with a snarl on her face. Reacting quickly, they veered their bikes out of the way and narrowly avoided colliding with the evil woman. The Elastic-Lady gave a snarl and started to slither back at them, a murderous look flickering in her eyes.

Realising that the flexible villainess was almost upon them, Stella gave a squeal of fright and instinctively lashed out with her foot, almost losing her balance on the bike in the process. The foot collided directly with the face of the Elastic-Lady, who gave out a loud cry of pain and began to sway all over the place in disorientation. Before the girl could clear her senses, her arm snagged on one of the front wheels of the van and with a shriek of distress, she ended up being pulled in! As the stretchy criminal became more and more tangled up, the wheel abruptly stopped spinning and the van too lost control, before crashing straight into a nearby streetlamp!

Gabs and Stella quickly brought the bikes to a halt and dashed across to make sure the three villains from Carnival Diablo were not hurt. Luckily the Ringmaster and the Wolf-Man had both been saved by the van's airbags and the Elastic-Lady was still breathing too, completely tangled up in the van's gears. However, all three of them were very much out cold from the crash.

"Well that's a relief," said Stella as she finished checking the three escapees over. "I'd have hated for them to have been killed, even if they did try to bump us off."

Gabby pulled out her compowder. "I'll call Barry... I mean _Jerry_ and let him know that we have three more bad acts for the containment facility's annual pantomime later this year. I do hope the other escaped prisoners are a bit easier to handle than this lot."


	8. The Girls' Investigation

Back in Malibu, Sam, Alex and Clover were in much better spirits than they had been over the last week. The day at Mali-U had gone by with ease and now that their classes were over for the day, the girls were currently treating themselves at the new 'FAB' salon at the Groove.

The new shop acted as both a beauty parlour and a hair salon, so while Clover was enjoying getting a much-needed manicure, Sam and Alex were getting their hair done. Sam was just getting her hair generally well washed and combed, whereas Alex had decided to try out a new look for her hair. She was not planning to get rid of her traditional bob cut look, rather she was trying something different for the next few weeks to help take her mind off her still-healing injuries. She had decided on a wavy curls style that was similar to one she had once tried on the WOOHPtanic, though this time she was hoping not to lose it to another of Jerry's surprise initiative tests.

"Wow, that's cute," remarked Alex at her reflection in the mirror when the stylist had finished doing the girl's new perms. "What do you think, Sammy?"

Sam looked across at Alex's new look and gave an encouraging smile. "Looks great to me, Alex. I generally prefer your old look, but still, very nice."

On the other side of the room, Clover's manicure was also finished and she was now looking at her done-up nails with profound satisfaction. "Awesome! This is like the coolest nail do-over I've ever had!"

Feeling much more refreshed after their makeover, the girls paid for their respective beauty treatments before wheeling themselves across the Groove to grab a bite to eat.

"Say, I wonder if it's a good time to find out how Britney and our moms are doing," wondered Alex.

"Yeah, we haven't heard a peep from them since they got going to help deal with this total crisis," added Clover.

"Well, let's call Jerry and find out," said Sam, before opening up her compowder. A few seconds later, a rather dishevelled and tired-looking Jerry appeared on the holographic screen.

"Whoa, Jerry! Are you okay?" asked Alex in concern.

"Oh, I'm fine, thank you girls," said Jerry wearily. "It's just been rather anarchic down here with all the apprehending missions going on. In anticipation of your next question, your mothers and Britney are doing just fine. As a matter of fact, they've just managed to successfully recapture Valentine and the Ringmaster's little gang."

"That's great news, Jerr," said Sam. "So who's left to find?"

"Well, our various agents are reporting some good progress in tracking down most of the escaped villains, but I'm afraid there's currently no sign of the two most dangerous escapees, one of whom is Geraldine Husk."

The girls looked at each other with some considerable looks of alarm on their faces.

"Oh no! We'll be in serious trouble if she decides to come after us now," said Clover fretfully, remembering all the times that particular evil mastermind had attempted to destroy everyone at WOOHP, particularly the girls!

"Indeed," said Jerry, "which is why since their respective missions are now complete, I've now assigned your mothers, along with Britney, to guard Geraldine's island barge, in case she tries to recapture it and use it as her headquarters again. If nothing else, they might find a clue as to where else she may be hidden."

"Okay, but what about the saboteur who caused all this? Have you been able to find out who he is?" asked Alex.

"Unfortunately not. The two stunned security personnel have recovered and given a description of the intruder, but with all our top agents spread across the country, we haven't been able to find anyone qualified enough to run a proper investigation."

"Tell you what, Jerry," said Sam. "As soon as we grab a bite to eat here, why don't the three of us look around the security room and see if we can find anything that can tell us who we're dealing with."

"Yeah, at least then we'd be able to help in some way," agreed Clover determinedly.

"Please, Jerry! It would certainly beat having to keep sitting on the side-lines," implored Alex, all too keen for a bit of action.

Jerry opened his mouth to protest, but such was the imploring expressions on the girls' faces that he finally relented.

"Oh very well. I'll have a WOOHP van come and pick the three of you up in two hours."

* * *

"Sheesh, what a mess!" remarked Alex as the girls surveyed the remains of the security room from their wheelchairs. The control panel was still in pieces after the saboteur had smashed it with a chair and all the monitor screens were now non-operational. However, the main computer drive itself seemed intact and undamaged. Getting out her compowder, Sam connected the gadget wirelessly to the drive's database and started to check through the files.

"Whoever this guy is, he sure knew what he was doing," she said. "Before he smashed the controls, he wiped the security recording files for that day, so we've no footage of him that can be scanned for identification."

Glancing about the room, Alex suddenly spotted something amongst the debris on the floor. "Hey, didn't those two guards say that this dude had a toothpick in his mouth?"

She pointed with her finger and sure enough, the girls could see a small wooden stick standing out from the dull grey floor.

"Nice spotting, Alex!" said Clover as she got out the 'Cool Catcher Clue Collector' and used its extendable claw to pick the toothpick up. "Eww, it's got grotty spit all over it!"

"Not to mention dried blood," added Sam thoughtfully. "We might be able to identify our intruder from that."

Sam held out her Scanner Watch and a beam of light shot out from the projector slot and ran over the toothpick, quickly analysing the blood sample and matching it to any similar samples in the WOOHP database. There was a high-pitched bleep as the watch finished its scan and found what the girls were looking for.

"Hey, we've got a match here," said Sam with a grin. Elated by this news, Clover and Alex wheeled themselves to either side of Sam so they could see the results on the watch screen for themselves. An image of a young brown-haired man in his late twenties appeared on the screen and the girls' mouths dropped in shock as they recognised the culprit.

"No way! I don't believe it!" exclaimed Clover.

"Far out! I didn't think it would be him!" added Alex in disbelief.

"And yet, it all makes perfect sense," concluded an equally wide-eyed Sam. "Come on! We've got to warn Jerry!"


	9. Geraldine's Island

Gabby, Carmen and Stella had at first been really annoyed at getting assigned to another mission immediately after only just completing their previous respective tasks. Not only did it mean they did not have a chance to catch a breather, but it also meant they could not drop in on the girls in Malibu to see how they were getting on. However, when they arrived at the Pacific Ocean and met up at the control tower of Geraldine's island, their irritation gave way to amazement at the scale of the place.

"Gracious me, this place is unbelievable!" breathed Carmen in awe as she and the other two mothers looked over the edge of the control room and gazed at the massive jungle landscape that lay out before them. "It's hard to believe this whole island is in fact a huge ocean barge."

"Yeah, you've got to hand it to Geraldine. She really put in a lot of effort getting this place built," said Britney who was busy at the computer terminal, inspecting the security scanners and checking through the logs for any information on other hidden bases that Geraldine might be using.

It was really because of the size and nature of the place that the barge had not already been dismantled by WOOHP. So instead, various personnel had been assigned to dismantle any known weapons and defences, as well as removing dangerous fauna such as mutant man-eating plants, with the intention of converting the barge into a nature reserve. At the moment though, the barge was deserted, except for the four spies who had based themselves in the tower. The idea was that if Geraldine did indeed plan to recapture her hideout, she would more likely strike if she thought the place was abandoned. The spies had therefore decided to use the barge as bait in the small hope that Geraldine would be lured in, whereupon they would capture her. It was a bit of a long shot, but in the absence of any other leads, it was the best plan they could come up with.

"I can't believe that this Husk woman would be so foolish to come here again," remarked Stella, plonking herself onto a rather comfortable chair by one of the various monitor screens. "Surely she must realise that this would be the first place WOOHP would expect her to go."

"Well, this is her island," pointed out Gabby. "She may have a concealed entrance somewhere, plus a number of hidden traps and surprises set for any of her enemies, which would enable her to retake the place. So we all better be vigilant."

"I just wish the girls were here too," said Carmen earnestly. "They have much more experience in dealing with this woman than we do."

"I never appreciated before just how much hard work they have to put into this job," added Stella. "Having to go through each week with dreadful people like the Ringmaster and his gang must be exhausting. I don't know how they manage to handle it all!"

"It's just something you get used to over time," said Britney encouragingly. "As you become more experienced with each mission, you find it isn't always so tense and difficult."

"Maybe," said Gabby, "but we really ought to show the girls a bit more appreciation for everything they've done over the years, especially after all they've been through lately."

Before anyone could say anything else, one of the security monitor screens abruptly went switched off. Reacting quickly, Britney checked the system to trace the fault.

"Uh-oh, this doesn't look good," she said seriously. "The security camera for Section 3 has just gone down."

"Section 3? That's near the submarine dock isn't it? Do you think it could be Geraldine?" asked Carmen.

"It could be," agreed Britney. "I better get down there and take a look."

"I'm coming too," said Gabby firmly. "You may need some back-up down there."

"Hang on, what about Carmen and me?" asked Stella indignantly. "You don't expect us to sit here twiddling our thumbs, do you?"

"Of course not," said Britney kindly, but professionally. "But we do need you to hold the fort here, in case there is trouble brewing at the dock. If something goes wrong, it could be up to you two to bail us out."

* * *

Keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of danger, Britney and Gabby cautiously made their way over to the submarine dock, using the thick growth of the jungle to keep hidden from any potential villains in the area. Soon, they reached the small submarine berth and from a vantage point behind some rocks, they could see that the entrance hatch that led from the ocean outside to the dock inside had been left wide open. They could also see that a large shark-shaped submarine had been placed in the loading berth, still dripping wet with seawater.

"Geraldine must have only just got here," whispered Britney. "Hopefully she hasn't yet realised that she's not the only one currently on the island."

As they watched, a hatch suddenly opened on the top of the submarine and Geraldine Husk could be seen climbing out of the sub and down a connecting ladder, before crossing over to a nearby computer terminal. Unobserved, Britney and Gabby were quietly sneaking towards her, ready to launch a surprise attack.

"Okay, we'll tackle her together before she has a chance to react," murmured Gabby. "Remember, what Jerry said about this woman, she can be as cunning and devious as a fox, so we can't afford for her to pull any tricks on us."

Britney nodded in agreement and the two spies moved into a pouncing position, ready to leap out from their hiding place and take down Geraldine.

"On the count of three, then. One… Two… Three!"

Moving like lightning, Britney and Gabby leapt into the air and flung themselves feet first at Geraldine. However, the moment she heard the two spies approaching, Geraldine's fast reflexes kicked in and she leapt out of the way a split second before the spies could collide with her. She bounded off the floor before landing gracefully on top of a gangplank.

"Well, what do we have here? Two more spy wannabes?" she leered evilly.

Britney and Gabby were shocked by how fast Geraldine was able to move, but they quickly moved into a fighting stance of their own.

"All right, Geraldine, surrender now and we may go easy on you," said Britney boldly, hoping to intimidate the villainess into giving up.

"Sorry," chortled Geraldine, "but I'm afraid my new associate might have something to say about that."

Before the spies knew what was happening, a large thick net had suddenly been thrown from the submarine behind them. The strong and heavy net landed right on top of the two spies, ensnaring them both. As Britney and Gabby struggled to free themselves, Geraldine grabbed some rope and quickly tied the two WOOHP agents up.

"Well that went well," grumbled Gabby dismally. "Oh, how could I have been so careless? I am never going to be able to live this down."

"My bad," said Britney apologetically, feeling just as embarrassed as Gabby. "I should have realised that Geraldine might have had a henchman with her on the sub."

"Hardly a henchmen, ladies. More like an evil business partner actually," chuckled a cold voice from the top of the sub.

Gabby and Britney turned their heads towards the submarine and saw a man standing by the hatch. He seemed to be in his early sixties and was dressed in 18th century clothing, complete with a monocle placed over his left eye. Britney's face paled as she recognised the man from the files at WOOHP.

"Oh no! We're in real trouble now," she gulped.

Gabby looked inquisitively at her. "Why? Who is this man?"

The strangely dressed man gave a chivalrous bow for the spies. "Oh, do forgive me, my dears, I forgot my manners. I am Terrence Lewis and you have the honour of being my prisoners! Ha, ha, ha!"

* * *

Meanwhile, at the control tower, Carmen and Stella were both starting to get worried.

"It's been thirty minutes since Gabs and Britney set off. Shouldn't we have heard from them by now?" asked Stella, unable to keep the concern out of her voice.

"You're right. I better call them to make sure everything is going okay," said Carmen. She got out her compowder and tried calling the others, but all she got was static coming through on the video screen and speaker systems.

"They're not answering!" she cried. "Right, that does it! We're going to have to go down there and find out what's happened."

"I'll contact Jerry first and let him know what's happening," said Stella before she crossed over to the communication terminal and activated the link to the display monitor on Jerry's desk. A few seconds later, Jerry's face appeared on the large screen before them.

"Stella? Carmen? Is everything all right?" he asked.

"Not really," replied Stella. "Gabs and Britney have gone missing and we… ARGH!"

Stella's sentence was suddenly cut off as an electroshock stun dart suddenly hit her in the back and waves of electricity painfully danced about her person, shocking her into a state of unconsciousness. She collapsed on the control panel, inadvertently hitting the communications button and abruptly disconnecting the link with Jerry. Carmen whirled around to see a young handsome-looking man standing on the other side of the platform, dressed in an indigo blue catsuit and aiming a stun-dart gun at her.

"What?! How did you get up here?" exclaimed Carmen.

"Simple," smirked the man. "I climbed up the side of the tower with these suction cups and crept up behind you. Didn't old Jerry teach you ladies to watch your backs?"

Carmen swiftly moved to get clear, but the mysterious man was faster still and quickly shot another dart, which impacted with Carmen's shoulder. Like it was with Stella, Carmen was zapped by painful jolts of electricity and quickly rendered unconscious. The young man lowered his gun and gave an evil smirk at the two spies sprawled out on the floor.

"Name's Tad, by the way, and it's been my pleasure to totally kick your butts!"


	10. The Return Of LAMOS

**Sixty Seconds Ago…**

Just a minute before the drama at the control tower of Geraldine's Island had started to unfold, an incredulous Jerry was being briefed by the girls about their findings at the security room.

"What? Tad is our saboteur? Are you positive about this, girls?" said Jerry, not quite believing this turn of events.

"Well that's what the DNA scan of the toothpick told us," said Alex grimly. "The blood sample we found is a 100% match with the medical records on Tad here at WOOHP."

"I guess it's possible that the toothpick was planted to give a false lead," conceded Sam, "but let's face it, Jerr. Tad is one of the few people in WOOHP who would know all the ins and outs of the building, not to mention the know-how to steal some gadgets and hack the security system."

"And let's not forget what a total backstabber he was in the past," added Clover bitterly. "He totally tried to hi-jack our very first mission and was willing to leave us floating in space for like all eternity, just so he can keep his 'number one agent' status!"

"Yeah, he _sooo _has the perfect motive," said Alex. "He'd be more than happy to help those baddies break out, just to make life majorly tough for us."

"Yes, I'm afraid what you girls say makes complete sense," sighed Jerry. "It is such a pity though. I had hoped that in time he might have learned his lesson and re-applied for WOOHP agent status again."

"What I don't get is how he got back into the building," said Sam. "Didn't you kick him out after he served his term at the containment facility?"

"Ah, well, not exactly," said Jerry awkwardly. "It was felt that WOOHP ought to keep a close tab on Tad, so when he was released, he was reassigned to general cleaning duties about the building."

"Cleaning duties? Man, I doubt that would have helped him get over his grudge," said Clover dryly.

The discussion was brusquely interrupted by the sound of the WOOHP ringtone coming through on Jerry's computer. Jerry quickly hit a switch and a moment later, Carmen and Stella's faces appeared on the desk monitor screen.

"Stella? Carmen? Is everything all right?" he asked in concern.

"Not really," said Stella seriously. "Gabs and Britney have gone missing and we… ARGH!"

To the mutual horror of Jerry and the girls, Stella was suddenly zapped by jolts of electricity and collapsed, whereupon the video feed went dead. Alarmed, Clover swiftly wheeled herself to the desk and pulled the display screen around to face her.

"Mum, are you okay? Can you hear me? MUM!" exclaimed Clover, desperately bellowing at the screen to get a reply, all to no avail.

"Oh no, what's happened to them?" cried Alex, her face turning pale in fear.

"Jerry, quick! Rewind to the frame just before we lost contact," snapped Sam franticly.

Jerry quickly hit some buttons on his keyboard and the recorded video feed rewound and paused on the second just after Stella collapsed out of sight of the frame. Standing a few feet behind where she had been was Tad who was holding a hoisted electroshock stun pistol in his hand.

"Oh my! You girls were right," said Jerry.

"For all the good it does us now," said Clover bitterly. "We've got to get our moms and Britney out of there like now!"

"Yeah, but how?" asked Sam. "Most of the best WOOHP agents are still busy out there chasing the remaining escapees and we're only left with a basic security crew who are trying to man the WOOHP building all by themselves."

"There's only one thing for it then," said Jerry resolutely. "I shall have to go out there and attempt a rescue attempt myself."

"You can't go out there alone, Jerry!" protested Alex. "Tad is bound to be ready for you and for all we know, he may be working with Geraldine! You're going to need some serious back-up for this rescue."

"Oh, if only we weren't stuck in these stupid wheelchairs," griped Clover as she pounded her leg casts with her fists in despair. "Then maybe we could have done something to help."

Jerry's face suddenly lit up as a thought occurred to him. "Actually, I just remembered something. There's a prototype gadget in the lab that might just get you girls back in the field."

He quickly hit a button on his desk and established a comm link with the WOOHP gadget lab.

"Dean, meet me and the girls in the lab in two minutes. I think it's time to put 'Project: Robospy' into operation."

* * *

By the time Carmen and Stella finally come round on the control tower floor, they had already been securely bound along with Gabby and Britney by sturdy interconnecting chains locked about their wrists and ankles. As Geraldine finished fastening the chains, Tad removed the last few gadgets from the spies' persons as Terrence looked on with malicious glee.

"Ohhh, what hit me?" groaned Stella. "I feel like I was hit by a bolt of lightning."

"Yes, it was something like that," confirmed Carmen groggily, before turning her head to Gabby and Britney. "How about you two? You feeling okay?"

"Yeah, we're all right," answered Gabby glumly. "Wish I could say the same for our situation though."

Terrence looked at the chained-up spies with mixed look of mocking amusement and disdainfulness. "So, WOOHP has taken to employing its best agents' old and feeble relatives now has it? Dear me, Jerry must be getting desperate in his old age."

"He's only as old as you are!" retorted Britney. "After all, you are his evil twin brother. You ought to show him a bit more respect."

Stella raised her eyebrows in surprise. "That's Jerry's twin? Oh dear, there's always one black sheep in the family isn't there?"

"Enough of this!" snapped Geraldine impatiently as she sat down on a chair, her white-furred cat lounging contently on her lap. "We didn't go to all the trouble of arranging that mass breakout at prison just so that you four spies can mess up our plans afterwards!"

"So you're the ones behind all this!" realised Gabby.

"Indeed so, my dear," said Terrence with a tone of pride in his voice. "You ladies are privileged to witness the revival of the 'League Aiming to Menace and Overthrow Spies'! You see, while I was stuck rotting in prison, thanks to those dratted daughters of yours, I met the acquaintance of Tad here. He cleaned my cell each week and as we got talking, I learnt that he had as much of a grudge against the girls as I do, so we made a deal. He was more than happy to plan out a foolproof escape strategy for me and he also aided in the escape of various other cellmates of mine, so that WOOHP would be forced to send out all its best agents in pursuit."

"Thus leaving only a skeleton crew to watch over things at WOOHP HQ, making it vulnerable to a well coordinated attack," added Geraldine as she stroked the fur of her purring cat. "Then once WOOHP is finished for good, nothing will be left to stop the new LAMOS team from plundering the world."

Britney glowered at Tad. "And what do you hope to get out of all this?"

"The pleasure of getting my own back on those stupid girls who replaced me!" said Tad resentfully. "I used to be WOOHP's absolute best agent, you know! Another few years and I could have been running the whole show as the new head! But then along came Sam, Clover and Alex. No sooner did they arrive, than I ended up disgraced and demoted to cleaning duties!"

"You only have yourself to blame for that, young man," scolded Carmen. "During our, ahem, grounding at their old beach house, the girls told us all about their first mission, including the part where you left them to be blasted off into space!"

"Yes, you ought to be ashamed of yourself," added Stella sternly. "Clover said she actually looked up to you before you betrayed her and the others on that space station. You can't seriously have expected Jerry to let you stay on as a WOOHP agent after the way you let everybody down."

"I don't need to take any criticism from a load of has-beens like you lot," snorted Tad arrogantly. "Not that it makes much difference now anyway. In just a couple of hours, there'll be nothing left of WOOHP but one large smouldering crater."

"And how exactly do you intend to achieve all that?" asked Britney. "Even undermanned, WOOHP has various defences to prevent any intruders from simply breaking in. In fact, they've seriously tightened security after the breakout!"

"Which is where I come in," smirked Geraldine. "You see the reason that darling Terrence here made sure I got out as well was because he learnt about my island's various hidden weapon systems which WOOHP had not yet discovered during their search. In particular, there is a large silo here disguised as a volcano containing a missile with enough explosive to level the whole of Los Angeles! I had been working on it prior to my last arrest, but was unable to complete it, as I couldn't steal the right equipment necessary for it."

"So instead," continued Terrance as he fiddled with his monocle, "we got Tad to do a bit of cleaning duty for the barge, enabling him to smuggle in the gear necessary for him to secretly complete the rocket in his spare time. As soon as the work was complete, he broke us out so Geraldine here can input the codes to launch our doom-dealing missile."

"Is it just me or does everyone else here think that plan sounds a bit too convoluted," remarked Stella sardonically as she tried to take in the villains' complex scheme.

"But if you fire that thing, you'll destroy the whole of Los Angeles as well as WOOHP!" protested Gabby with mounting horror. "Think of all the innocent people who'll be blasted to bits because of you!"

"Meh, simple missile fodder," said Tad dismissively. "You should be more worried about your own wellbeing. You see, when we launch the missile, you four nosey do-gooders will be going along for the ride, all chained up in the storage compartment."

Terrance gave an evil grin. "So, while we'll be watching from a safe distance on this barge, you ladies will be getting a much closer view at what will be known as one of the biggest explosions in history!"


	11. Project: Robospy

"So what exactly is 'Project: Robospy', Jerry?" asked Alex as the girls followed their boss into the WOOHP gadget lab.

"Something we've been working on for emergencies like this," explained Jerry cryptically. "The project was put on hold in light of the Protection Droid incident, but we kept the three already built prototypes on standby just in case any of our agents were in serious trouble and needed rescuing."

"Wait, it isn't anything like your 'Spy Droid' project, is it?" asked Clover suspiciously.

"You'll soon see," said Jerry as they made their way to the other end of the lab.

Dean was busy at his workbench when he saw the others approaching. "Hey there girls," he said with a cherry wave. "You ladies feeling any better?"

"Hi Dean," said Sam with a wistful look in her eyes. "Yeah, we would be if it wasn't for the fact that Britney and our mums have just been captured by the bad guys!"

"I'll explain the details later, Dean. Now, are the prototypes operational?" asked Jerry.

"Yeah, they'll all powered up and ready for use, Jerry," answered Dean as he pulled open the doors to a connecting storage unit. Inside, the girls could see what looked liked three shiny suits of hi-tech armour, sleek in design with a bit of a feminine look about them. Each of the helmets were completely smooth, with what seemed to be a display screen placed where the face would be, and there also appeared to be jetpacks built into the back of the three figures. They were also each coloured differently, with one suit being a shiny green, the second a deep scarlet, and the last being a yellowish gold colour.

"Whoa, what are those things? Leftover props from the last 'Iron Man' movie?" asked Alex.

"Oh, these aren't movie props, girls," explained Jerry, "though I will admit, the inspiration did come from those Marvel films. You see, these are in fact fully functioning spy robots, which act and move like a human being. They also have in-built jetpacks and a variety of gadgets designed for various situations."

"So basically, it _**is **_a variation of the Spy Droid project," said Sam wearily.

"So you're going to use these robots to save Britney and our moms?" asked Clover. "How do we know they won't go berserk like how the Spy Droids and 'Mr X's' Protection Droids did?"

"Because you three girls will be controlling them remotely via these virtual reality headsets," answered Dean as he held up a large metal helmet for the spies to see. "When connected, it'll be like your minds are inside the robots, though in reality, you'll simply be seeing things through the video link to the helmets. When you need your robot to do a specific movement, you simply think the command and the machine will react automatically."

"Well let's give it a try then," said Sam as she picked up one of the helmets from the bench and put it over her head, the visor obscuring her face entirely. Suddenly, the green robot sprung to life and an image of Sam's face appeared on the display screen of the robot's head.

"Wow, this is amazing!" said Sam, hearing her words coming through on the robot's modulated speaker systems. She, or rather the robot version of her, took a step forward and practiced a few battle stances, astounded at the speed and grace of the metal automaton. Impressed, Clover and Alex put on their own headsets and as it was with Sam, their own faces appeared on their respective robotic counterparts.

"Whoa, this is like so weird!" exclaimed Alex. "It's like I've been body-swapped with a machine."

"Well not really, girls, your minds are still safely in your own bodies here, controlling things via virtual reality. We've had to work hard to make sure these headsets don't cause any problems like the training helmet did with Britney," said Dean.

"Now I should warn you spies, the robots worked all right in simulation, but we haven't yet tested them out in the field, so we've no idea how they'll perform," said Jerry with a note of caution in his voice.

"Well, you know what they say," said Clover. "There's nothing like a trial by fire."

"Well if you feel ready, then it's time to blast off!" said Jerry as a hatchway opened above the three Robo-Spies. The girls quickly directed their mechanical avatars to activate their jetpacks via control pads place on each of the robots' wrists and within seconds the robots were flying through the tunnel towards the exit access.

"Awesome!" exclaimed the girls as they directed their robot-selves to fly out of the building and zoom unwaveringly towards Geraldine's island, hoping that they would be in time to save their mothers and Britney in time.

* * *

Meanwhile on the barge, Britney and the girl's mums had been unceremoniously dumped onto a loading trolley and were now being wheeled down a long passageway towards Geraldine's missile silo. When they got there, the four spies could not help but look in awe at the sheer scale of the shiny cylindrical missile, which was about half the size of a NASA Apollo rocket and dominated the large cavern of the fake volcano. At the top of the 'volcano', a large metal flap, that had previously covered the hole of the sierra and hidden the missile from view, had now slid open to reveal the clear evening sky. Presumably, the death-dealing missile would be launched through this hatchway like a bullet being fired through a gun-barrel, before being directed on its course to destroy WOOHP.

"Quite impressive, isn't it?" smirked Tad as he pushed the trolley down a gangplank and through an open hatch in the rocket. The spies turned their heads to see that they were in some kind of storage compartment for the missile, possibly for spare explosives to be installed. As soon as the trolley was in the centre of the chamber, Tad jammed on the trolley's brakes and started to make his way back to the gangplank.

"You know what's funny?" remarked Tad with a cruel grin. "When I first met the girls, I ended up being the one chained up to a death-dealing rocket. Now you three are about to go through the same harrowing experience as I did, only this time those precious girls of yours won't be coming to the rescue."

"You'll never get away with this!" snapped Stella defiantly as Tad stepped out of the missile and began to close the hatchway door.

"Oh, if I had a dollar for every time someone said that phrase, I'd be a billionaire," chuckled Tad before he slammed the metal door shut and locked it in place.

"All right, how are we going to get out of this one?" asked Carmen as she and the others struggled frantically against the tight chains binding them together.

"I wish I knew," said Britney anxiously, looking around the chamber for something, _anything_, that could help them escape. "Those creeps made sure to remove every single one of our gadgets, including our compowders, so we can't even send a warning to WOOHP."

"Well, Carmen and I did try to call Jerry before Tad caught us," remembered Stella. "Hopefully, everyone at WOOHP will have already realised something is wrong and are sending someone to rescue us as we speak."

"I really hope so," said Gabby fretfully, "because this missile will be launched in just a matter of minutes, taking us along with it! And when it hits Los Angeles, we'll be blown sky-high, along with our daughters, WOOHP headquarters and the entire city!"


	12. Back In Action

Back in the control tower, Terrence and Geraldine were watching a monitor screen displaying the large missile, when Tad stepped out of the elevator and joined them.

"Got them all safely locked up in there with no chance of escape," he grinned. "Boy, they're going to be in for quite a ride!"

Terrence gave an evil and satisfied smile. "Indeed. Well, I see no reason why we should wait any longer. My dear Geraldine, would you care to do the honours? It is your island after all."

"It'll be my pleasure," leered Geraldine before slamming her palm over the firing button.

There followed a thunderous roar as the missile's engines ignited and on the screen, the giant projectile began to lift up and zoom through the opening of the volcano. The three villains turned their heads towards the direction of the actual volcano and from their vantage point, they could see the missile blazing out of the mountain volcano and through an opening in the barge's force-field bubble, before continuing its journey to WOOHP.

"I want to cry," smiled Terrence as they watched the missile shoot off into the distance. "It's so beautifully evil."

* * *

At that precise moment, the robot avatars of Sam, Clover and Alex were flying swiftly through the air on their jetpacks. The robotic suits had proven surprisingly easy to handle and thanks to the powerful inbuilt thrusters, they were already within a mile of reaching Geraldine's base.

"Whoo-hoo! These Robo-Spy suits totally rule!" said Alex elatedly as she practiced a somersault in the air.

"They're not really suits, Alex," pointed out Sam. "Remember, we're not actually physically here at all. The three of us are still in the WOOHP lab, directing these machines. It's pretty much like driving a remote-control toy car, now you think about it."

"Well, it sure feels like it's us that are flying out here," remarked Clover who was still getting used to the whole experience.

Before their discussion could carry on, Alex suddenly spotted something in the distance. "Hey, look! There's Geraldine's island just ahead of us!"

"Great! We'll be there in just a minute!" said Sam as the girls increased the power of their thrusters and rocketed towards the barge.

"Oh man, I sure hope Britney and our moms are still in one piece down there," said Clover worriedly.

As they drew closer to the barge, Alex suddenly spotted a silver speck in the distance, rapidly getting larger and heading their way.

"Uh guys, what's that ahead of us?" she asked apprehensively.

"I'm not sure," said Sam. "Dean, is there a zoom-in function on these headset screens?"

"Yeah, Sam," came Dean's voice from the WOOHP lab over the helmet's built-in communicators. "Just adjust the dial on the side of your headset and the screen should enlarge the object you're looking at."

Sam did as Dean instructed and as the image magnified, the speck in the distance suddenly became all too clear.

"Uh oh, girls! It's a missile heading right this way! Evasive manoeuvres now!"

The girls quickly directed their avatars to fly out of the way and just seconds later, the missile skyrocketed right past them. Hurriedly, the girls activated their thrusters and chased after the large rocket.

"That was like so rude!" grumbled Clover. "They could have knocked us right out of the sky!"

"I don't think that it was our avatars that they were trying to hit," said Sam in alarm as she finished computing the missile's path on her control pad. "I hate to say it, but rescuing Britney and our mothers will have to wait. If my calculations are right, that missile is heading straight for WOOHP! And judging from the size of it, I think that rocket may have enough explosive in there to level the whole of Los Angeles!"

"Then we better catch up with that thing like ASAP!" cried out Alex. Pouring every juice of power they could into their thrusters, the girls rocketed after the missile and within minutes, they had managed to catch up with it.

"Right girls, we can't let that missile hit any populated areas, so let's try and divert it to fly through the atmosphere and into space where it can't do any harm," suggested Sam.

"Okay Sammy, I guess it's worth a shot," said Clover before she flew over to the underside of the missile's nose cone and started pushing, trying to force it to go upwards.

"Urgh, it won't budge! Maybe if you guys pushed down on it from the other end, that might get this hunk of scrap metal to move."

"Sure thing, Clover," said Sam who was already flying over to the thruster end of the missile. Alex started to follow, but abruptly stopped when her audio sensors suddenly picked up something.

"Hey guys, wait! I think I'm picking up voices from inside this thing," she said urgently.

Surprised, Sam quickly adjusted her own robot's audio sensors and was startled when she heard the recognised the same voices that Alex had managed to hear.

"I don't believe it! That's Britney and our mums' voices we're hearing! They must be locked up in there!"

"Then we better get them out fast!" yelled Clover.

"Hey, there looks like the way in," said Alex as she flew over to the storage hatch and tried to pull the door open. "Uh, It's locked tight. Man, I thought these suits are meant to be like super strong!"

"Well I say why bother with super strength, when you've got cool inbuilt gadgets," grinned Clover as she extended her right index finger and aimed it at the hatch. A laser beam suddenly fired out of the tip of the finger and Clover carefully began guiding the laser around the latch of the sturdy metal door. There was a terrific display of sparks as the laser cut right through to the tough lock.

"Nice going, Clover," said Sam. "Right Alex, get ready to catch everyone inside as soon as Clover pulls the door open."

"No prob, Sammy," said Alex as she flew into position.

"Here we go. On the count of three then," said Clover as she finished cutting and grabbed the handle of the hatch. "One… Two… Three!"

Clover pulled the hatch open and four shrieking figures were sent shooting out of the missile by the sudden decompression. Moving quickly, Alex managed to grab Britney and Carmen, while Sam got hold of Gabby and Stella before any of them had a chance to fall through the moonlit sky to the ground below.

"It's okay, we've got you guys!" said Sam, relieved to see that her mum and the others were seemingly unhurt by their ordeal.

The mothers looked at the robots with surprise.

"Wha… Alex? Is that really you?" gasped Carmen incredulously.

"Well, yes and no. It's a bit of a long story, Mummy," said Alex as she and Sam used their own inbuilt lasers to quickly cut through their teammates' chains.

"Let me guess, these are three remote-control robots that you're guiding back at WOOHP?" surmised Britney with a grin.

"Oh okay, maybe it's not that long a story after all," said Alex, staggered at Britney's quick powers of deduction.

"Never mind the long explanations," said Stella in an imperative tone of voice. "Girls, we need to stop this missile now! Geraldine is working with a couple of dreadful men called Terrence and Tad in order to blow you up along with WOOHP and the whole of L.A.!"

The girls were visibly shocked by this news.

"What?! Terrence is behind all this?" exclaimed Clover.

"Guess we now know who the other dangerous escapee that Jerry mentioned earlier is," said Sam, chastising herself for not asking the escaped prisoner's identity earlier.

"Yeah, though it would have helpful if Jerr warned us about this sooner," said Alex dryly. "Just how are we going to stop this thing?"

"Well, there a small computer terminal in the storage compartment," said Britney, pointing back towards the open hatch. "I spotted it when we were locked in. Must have been for helping keep track of maintenance while the rocket was being constructed. Maybe you'll be able to access the missile's guidance systems from there."

"Awesome thinking there, Britney!" said Clover gleefully. "Hey Dean, you still there?"

"Sure thing, Clover," said Dean over the three helmets' communicators. "Jerry and I have been hearing the whole thing. All you need to do is fly over to the terminal and I'll do the rest."

"Right you are!" said Clover as she whooshed into the missile's storage compartment and hurriedly made her way over to the computer screen built into the missile.

"Okay, I'm in. Now what do I do?"

"Just hold out your left index finger towards the terminal," instructed Dean calmly. Clover did so and the tip of that finger suddenly began extending like a long computer lead, before plugging itself into a slot in the port of the missile's computer.

"Right, I'm accessing the system now," came Dean's voice over the clattering sound of keyboard buttons being pressed as he attempted to access the encrypted data. "Give me a minute and I may be able to get the missile to return to sender."

"Oh no, look!" shouted Gabby as she pointed ahead with her finger in agitation. The others looked up and saw with alarm that Los Angeles was now coming into view and WOOHP headquarters was right in the missile's way.

"Dean, you better hurry!" yelled Sam adamantly. "We've got about a minute before the missile hits and we all get blasted to bits!"


	13. An Explosive Finale

Dean worked fast at his keyboard in the lab, but the missile's computer system was proving harder to hack than he first thought. Meanwhile, the menacing rocket was flying indomitably towards WOOHP, getting closer and closer by second, while the Robo-Spies were flying closely behind, still holding onto Britney and the girls' mums.

"Oh, if only there was an autopilot on these things," lamented Alex, "then we could at least get the four of you to safety away from here."

"And leave the rest of you to get blasted apart by that thing? No way!" said Carmen resolutely.

"Yeah, there's no way we're going to abandon you all just to save our own skins, Alex," agreed Britney firmly. "Besides, even if we were willing to, it's too late to get of here anyway."

Britney was quite right. It was indeed far too late to get clear as the missile was now just seconds away from hitting the WOOHP building, whereupon it would detonate an explosion large enough to reduce the whole city to fragments and catch the flying spies in the blast.

Then, just as looked like the missile would hit its target, the missile suddenly veered away from WOOHP, narrowly missing the building by inches, before it began flying back the way it came.

"Yay Dean, you did it!" cried Clover jubilantly as she flew out of the missile and joined her friends who were touching down on the landing pad at the top of the building.

"Yeah, but only just," breathed Dean in relief. "That was way too close for my liking."

"So where is that missile going now?" asked Alex.

"Back to Geraldine's island, of course," said Sam. "I think the LAMOS are in for a really nasty surprise!"

* * *

A few seconds ago on the barge's control tower, Terrence, Geraldine and Tad had been watching the progress of the missile on the monitor screen with glee, none of them quite able to believe that they were on the verge of triumph.

"Splendid, splendid!" said Terrence jubilantly. "In just a few seconds, dear brother Jerry and his precious WOOHP will be no more! Oh, revenge has never tasted so sweet!"

"And then, we proceed with eliminating every other law enforcement agency on the planet, until there is no one left to stop us from taking over the entire world," leered Geraldine with an evil grin like the Wicked Witch of the West. "I have to hand it you, Terrence. I could not have come up with a more diabolical scheme myself."

"Oh, you're being overly modest, my dear Geraldine," said Terrence pleasantly. "Your magnificent missile was the true key to our success. As a matter of fact, I was wondering if we could discuss some more evil schemes, say, over dinner?"

"Oh Terrence," blushed Geraldine rapturously as she regarded the LAMOS leader with a longing look in her eyes.

But before the strange, evil romance had a chance to blossom any further, the two villains were interrupted by an urgent yell from Tad, who was looking at the tracking monitor with alarm.

"Hey, what's going on? The missile is turning about away from WOOHP!"

Terrence and Geraldine turned and looked at the small blip indicating the missile's position, their annoyance giving way to distress as they realised where the deadly rocket was heading.

"Gah, our homing missile is heading back home!" realised a shocked Terrence.

"Relax, Terrance darling. We simply have to hit the abort button and the missile will blow up harmlessly in the air before it even has a chance to reach us," smirked Geraldine, before turning to face Tad. "Now, where did you install the abort control?"

Tad looked at her in surprise. "Me? I thought you had already installed such a failsafe yourself. My task was simply to complete the rocket, not work on the controls up here."

"WHAT?! You mean to say that we have no failsafe?!" exclaimed Geraldine as she grabbed the ex-WOOHP agent by the collar and shook him violently in a frenzied rage.

"I didn't think we'd need one!" protested Tad feebly as beads of sweat ran down his forehead.

"That missile will hit us in just four minutes," realised an increasingly panicking Terrence, "with enough explosive to destroy this entire island! Quick, to the shark sub!"

"No time!" snapped Geraldine. "We'd never reach the submarine dock in time. We'll have to use the tower's escape pod instead."

She hit a switch on the control panel and a man-size cylindrical box rose up from a hidden panel in the floor. Hastily, she pulled open a door on the container and began to clamber in along with her cat.

"But there isn't enough room in there for all three of us!" protested Tad indignantly.

"There will be if we all squeeze in," retorted Terrence as he started to climb in after Geraldine. "Unless of course, you'd rather we leave you behind here to go down with the ship!"

With a squeak of alarm at the prospect of being left behind, Tad leapt into the cramped capsule and quickly closed the door. Seconds later, the pod's rocket thrusters engaged and sent the small craft and its occupants flying through the force-field bubble and as far away from the island as its limited fuel could allow.

As soon as they were a safe distance away, Tad chanced a looked through the escape pod's porthole, where he could see the missile streaking towards the island. Seconds later, there was a terrific explosion and Tad had to shield his eyes from the intense light of the blast. When he looked again a few seconds later, the whole of the giant barge was aflame and quickly sinking beneath the waves to the bottom of the ocean.

"Nooo! My beautiful island!" shrieked Geraldine as she watched the remains of her grandiose base disappear under the sea.

"Yes, well… At least we've escaped to fight another day," said Terrence pragmatically as he tried to get the cat's paws out of his face. But no sooner had he said this, the movement of the capsule suddenly lurched to a halt as something grabbed hold of it in mid-air.

"Oh no! It's some WOOHP choppers!" groaned Tad as he looked out of the porthole again. "They've got us ensnared in their holding nets!"

"Blast!" sighed Terrence dejectedly. "I suppose this means that we've been foiled again. Spies are so annoying."

* * *

Back at WOOHP, the elated spies had gathered in Jerry's office, except for Dean, who was busy in the lab powering down the Robo-Spies in order to put them back into storage. Jerry had just received the call confirming that the new LAMOS team had been successfully recaptured and were now being returned to the containment facility, much to the girls' relief.

"Whew, that mission was _waaay _too intense for my liking," sighed Alex as she slumped back in her wheelchair.

"Yeah, Terrence really came close to winning this time," agreed Sam, "and he almost destroyed an entire city in the process."

"Never mind, honey," said Gabby assuredly. "It's all over now."

"Yes, now that the LAMOS are safely back in custody, the world is safe once again," added Jerry with a smile. "And I think you'll also be glad to hear that the last of the escapees have just been apprehended and security is now being tightened to prevent such a massive escape like this occurring again. Well done, girls!"

Clover looked at Jerry in surprise. "'Well done us'? Jerr, we barely did anything on this mission! Britney and our moms did most of the work on this one."

"But you three did manage to identify Tad as our saboteur," pointed out Britney.

"And you rescued us from that missile and stopped it from hitting the city just in time," added Stella proudly.

"Only thanks to those remote control suits that Dean had designed," argued Alex, "and he was the one who managed to divert the missile before it hit WOOHP."

Sam smiled. "I think it's fair to say that it was a team effort that really won the day this time and I guess we owe something to those Robo-Spy avatars of ours as well."

"Yeah," agreed Clover, "though I hope this doesn't mean you're planning to replace us with machines again, Jerry."

"Don't worry, Clover," said Jerry reassuringly. "Useful though the Robo-Spies have proven to be today, past experience has taught me that it's best to reserve them for emergencies only. Of course, if you girls would like to give them another test flight…"

"No thanks, Jerry!" smiled Sam adamantly. "We've had enough virtual flying for one day. Beside, the three of us are still meant to be on sick leave for the next few weeks, remember?"

"Indeed," agreed Gabby as she, Carmen and Stella grabbed the handlebars of their respective daughters' wheelchairs and quickly began to wheel the girls towards the exit. "And I have to say that the six of us are quite overdue for some quality mother-daughter time, thank you very much Harry!"

"So if you don't mind," added Carmen, "we'll be busy treating our daughters at this new pizza restaurant that's recently opened at the Groove. And while we're there, perhaps Alex can use her new hairdo to get herself a new boyfriend."

"Mommy, will you _please _stop doing that!" hissed a blushing, but nonetheless smiling Alex. "You're totally embarrassing me!"

Everyone else in the room chuckled at this and Clover turned her head to look at Britney. "Care to join us, Britney? I guess we owe you one for helping our mums out."

"Thanks," said Britney appreciatively. "I sure could do with a bite to eat after everything that's happened today."

And with that, the seven of them got going, cheerily chatting and laughing along the way, all too glad that one of the most intense and dangerous episodes of their entire lives was finally over.


End file.
